Hive 5.5
Hive 5.5 is the fifth chapter of Hive. The Undersiders arrange their communications and plans for the night's attack on the ABB and then move out to join up with the other teams. Plot At the loft Tattletale outlines the plan to Skitter; by Coil's suggestion, the different factions will be contributing members to each of three groups. This will prevent any faction attempting to backstab the others, since their teammates will be surrounded by members of the other groups. She sets alarms on Skitter's phone that will signal times to check in with the other Undersiders, and introduces a code they will be using, consisting of two parts. The first part serves as an identity verification, with one person giving the first letter of a name both people are familiar with, and the second replying with the last letter of the name. The second part communicates each person's status, with both naming an object of distinct colour that correlates with traffic lights. Green indicates all ok, yellow for an uncertain situation and red means that help is needed. Tattletale goes on to talk about the groups; her and Regent will be joined among others by Faultline, Trickster and "the Travelers' shapeshifter". She hopes to get a better sense of the powers of the two Travelers' members, while annoying Faultline in a situation where Faultline cannot do anything in response. Grue will be with the second group, while Skitter will be with Bitch. The team use a van to transport them to their destinations, with Skitter and Bitch being dropped off first. During the journey, Skitter notes that the distance of control for her bugs is almost double to its usual range, however Tattletale is too focused on other matters for finding an answer to be considered a priority. While observing Bitch growing her dogs with her power, Skitter ponders on where the extra mass comes from, and then on her own power's energy source. As Bitch and Skitter walk to the meeting point after being dropped off, Bitch accurately observes that Skitter is angry despite the full coverage of her costume. Bitch offers little help in explaining this, so Skitter drops the conversation. The assorted villains that the two are grouped with consists of Kaiser, Fenja and Menja of E88, the girl with the sun motif from the Travelers, Newter and Labyrinth of Faultline's Crew and two soldiers from Coil's Organization. Kaiser remarks on the Undersiders' last minute arrival, and then immediately takes command of the situation. Bitch then grows Brutus from the size of a small pony to his maximum size, causing the dog to spray the bloody mess cause by the transformation across the assembled villains, resulting in shocked reactions from all of the other faction's members other than Labyrinth. Skitter considers this play to have made a better statement against Kaiser than anyone would have achieved with words. Trivia *Regent assuming that Skitter is making a pun by saying "i'll bug you about it later", due to her insect motif, is also an element seen in the draft Myriad. Characters Site Navigation Category:Chapters